Los Olvidados (aka The Young and the Damned)

Luis Bunuel creates an unforgettable masterpiece of unflinching reality that provides the necessary justification for those who believe that there is no difference between between cinema and reality, at least cinema as true art. It follows a couple of street kids in Mexico City as they merely exist in the world they know. The movie makes no effort to excuse them as they beat up a blind man, steal money, or as in one scene, brutally muder a peer, yet neither does it allow itself to pass judgement. It remains incredibly objective, not explaining why the situations are the way they are, and offerring no solution as to how they could be improved. It stands as a document of truth, observing the way things are in the streets of Mexico City. Bunuel is often remembered for the slitting of the eyeball in Un Chien Andalou or his virulent satirical attacks on organized religion as in L'Age D'Or or the sensual, surrealistic farce of his later years, but what is often overlooked is just how humane a filmmaker he always was even at his boldest and most controversial. However with this film as with his greatest film Nazarin, and other films he made while in exile in Mexico, he mostly strips away style (though there is still one memorable surrealistic dream sequence in the film), to the bare essence of humanity through his images. It's a powerful film which leaves me thinking of the truth of Jim Hoberman's observations, "Los Olvidados is strong enough to make a hardened Communist cry or drive a (true) Christian to despair." A true gift from any artist.